Pokemon of the Week #20: Whiscash

#340: Whiscash, the Whiskers Pokemon

I actually like Whiscash! I've never actually usd one in-game becasue my go-to Hoenn starter is always Mudkip, and it's not very practical to run two Water/Ground dual-types in the same team. And whenever I start off with Torchic or Treecko, I tend to have either Ludicolo or Crawdaunt/Sharpedo fill the water role of the team, because you find Whiscash (or rather, his pre-evolution Barboach) relatively... well, I wouldn't say late-game because IIRC they can be encountered as early as Meteor Falls, but it's still relatively late enough for a pretty unimpressive basic-stage. 

See, I've always loved aquatic life as a kid. I could watch documentaries about fish and octopi and sea slugs and the like for hours and not be bored, which is why I have such a huge affinity for the Bug and Water types. A lot of people see Whiscash and brush it off as 'oh, another fish', but I do love whenever they introduce, well, other fish and bugs into the Pokemon world. 

Whiscash is a derpy-looking catfish, and like most Hoenn Pokemon kind of suffers from the addition of several odd details when they realize that they could put more details into the sprites. Whiscash never got as bad as the likes of Camerupt or Medicham, but I'm not sure the big W tattoo on his forehead, or the dual catfish-whiskers and Slugma-esque drool-growths are necessary. It's a small complaint, though. He's two shades of blue and has yellow highlights, and he looks like a total derp.

Whiscash is obviously based on the catfish, a pretty culturally-significant animal in Asia, and I think they are like an invasive species in America or some such? They're tasty when cooked as food, and they're also kept in aquariums to clean up the literal shit and scum from the other more valuable fishes. The catfishes' distinctive features are their whiskers, which, obviously, makes up Whiscash's name and the two curled-up whiskers that could give Kricketune a run for his money. The whiskers (or barbels, as they're properly called) are used to help the fish 'smell' in the ocean, being tipped with taste buds or some such. 

So why is Whiscash Water/Ground? Obviously he's water because of the whole fish thing, but why ground? Well, like many other Pokemon, Whiscash draws inspiration from Japanese mythology, specifically the giant catfish Ou-Namazu that lives in the mud under the islands of Japan, restrained by the god Kashima with a giant stone. Whenever Kashima fails at properly doing this task, Namazu will thrash around and cause earthquakes. Some people theorize that the legend came from the observation that some catfish (as with many other animals) become super-agitated prior to earthquakes, leading the ancient Japanese to blame said earthquakes to the catfish.  

In the games, Whiscash (and his pre-evolution, the loach-based Barboach) tends to congregate in freshwater lakes and rivers. Obviously Whiscash was first featured in the third generation, in Meteor Falls and Victory road -- there weren't many freshwater locations in Hoenn, what with the region being 75% sea. Barboach and Whiscash were also pretty populous in Sinnoh and some pars of Kalos, and they're relatively rare encounters in Unova and Alola.

Some prominent NPCs that use Whiscash are Wallace and Juan, both gym leaders of Hoenn. Which is kind of expected, really -- both use mainly water teams, and Whiscash punsihes anyone relying solely on Electric attacks. I'm pretty sure the likes of Crasher Wake and Misty uses Whiscash at some time in things like the B2W2 World Tournament or rematches or whatever, but Juan and Wallace are the most prominent Whiscash users in lore.

In actual combat, Whiscash actually suffers from the worst sin a Pokemon could have -- completely balanced stats, which means that he's relatively shit if you're trying to do something competitive. Thankfully, Whiscash's part-Ground typing makes him a lot less forgettable compared to other average-statted fish Pokemon like Seaking or Lumineon. Like, yeah, Swampert and Quagsire are probably better options for a Water/Ground member of your team, but Whiscash fits in the 'eh, not bad' territory. He's able to do all the Water and Ground type attacks that you'd expect someone like Whiscash be able to do, but maybe as a nod to the mythical Namazu that he's based upon, Whiscash is able to pull off some psychic moves like Zen Headbutt, Amnesia and Future Sight. Like most water-types and ground-types, Whiscash can learn ice and rock moves from TMs. Sadly he falls under the same curse that all Water/Ground Pokemon are wont to, which is a gigantic 4x weakness to Grass. As someone who likes to play with Swampert, though, the amount of weaknesses that Water/Ground has is actually completely limited to Grass, so as long as you don't face off against exactly one type he's actually going to be fine. 

Oh, I forgot to talk about the lore stuff of Whiscash! Well, most of the lore ends up being a homage to the Namazu, either highlighting how Whiscash triggers earthquakes by thrashing around as a response to people disturbing their territory, or that he thrashes around when he feels an earthquke is coming. Other dex entries make note of how Whiscash is a gigantic glutton that shows up mostly at night (a lie! Whiscashes are never influenced by the time of the day!), and the glutton part is certainly true to real-life catfishes -- they are bottom feeders.

Overall, while Whiscash is not the most exciting Pokemon, it's certainly a relatively interesting one and not a Pokemon that I would count as 'forgettable', not by a long shot. I dunno. Maybe it's a product of my fascination with all forms of aquatic life? Regardless, Whiscash merges a species never-before-represented in Pokemon and a cool mythology and blends them together into a pretty cool little package. Not the most exciting creature out there, again, but one that I'm glad exists.